Posts Tagged ‘dispute
McDonald’s Dispute Pushes Bankruptcy Judge Over the Edge
- Reuters
It takes a lot to exasperate Judge Kevin Gross of the Delaware bankruptcy court. But after nearly six years on the bench, he finally hit his limit over an unfinished McDonald’s on a Manhattan street corner.
Last week, Gross did the judicial equivalent of throwing up his hands and walking away over a lawsuit between McDonald’s Corp. and the developer of the controversial One Madison Park condominium project—a 50-story tower whose legal troubles have made it an icon of the collapse of the commercial real-estate market.
McDonald’s, which owned the two-story restaurant that was torn down for the condo building, pressed the developer over its broken promise to allow the restaurant to reopen either in or near the swanky new project on 22 East 23rd St. in New York.
But that’s boiling it down. The actual arguments before Gross took up hundreds of pages and prompted him to formally abstain from the issue, meaning that he won’t allow the issue to move forward in his court.
The dispute has very little to do with Gross’s bankruptcy-court expertise, he wrote. And resolving the matter would force him to interpret New York state law that, frankly, he doesn’t have time to learn.
“It is fair to say the parties won’t agree on what day it is,” Gross said in an opinion filed with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington. “The proceedings would therefore occupy far more of the court’s and staff’s time than the size and number of proceedings might suggest, and the court’s efforts would certainly be greatly disproportionate to the minimal, if any, significance” to the condominium tower’s reorganization efforts.
Gross pointed out that dodging complex issues isn’t his style. Since picking up a gavel, he has overseen the contentious Chapter 11 case of the Los Angeles Dodgers, and he supervised the unwinding Canadian telecom giant Nortel Networks Corp., among other complicated cases.
“It is worth noting that this judge has never—never—abstained from hearing a matter regardless of its complexity and difficulty,” he wrote in his eight-page opinion. “The court fully recognizes that abstention is a rare and extraordinary act. The circumstances presented here are unique and exceptional.”
McDonald’s attorney Paul S. Rubin of the Herrick Feinstein law firm said Gross’s decision means that both groups could eventually take their arguments to New York state court, where the fighting could continue.
Supreme Court hears farm sale tax dispute
The attorney representing two family farmers in a dispute with the Internal Revenue Service told the U.S. Supreme Court at oral argument in November that the Bankruptcy Code makes dischargeable the capital gains tax from a post-petition sale of a farm.
Thomson Reuters News & Insight: Bankruptcy Law – Insight
7th Circuit upholds settlement of university’s TV license dispute
A television broadcaster forced into Chapter 11 bankruptcy has defeated a challenge by its largest unsecured creditor to a $ 100,000 settlement of a dispute with Indiana University over the rights to a Federal Communications Commission license.
Thomson Reuters News & Insight: Bankruptcy Law – Insight
Dodgers Seek to Settle Dispute Over Injured Pitcher
A retired Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher is at the center of a $ 3 million dispute between the Major League Baseball team and insurance giant Hartford Life Insurance Co.
The dispute concerns ex-Dodger Paul Shuey, who, the Los Angeles Times reports, underwent hip surgery in October 2003. He tore a tendon in his thumb in March 2004 and had a second hip surgery that July, leaving him in the dugout for the whole 2004 season. In court papers, the Dodgers’ attorneys said the team remained on the hook for Shuey’s 2004 season salary of $ 3.25 million and therefore filed a claim to draw insurance proceeds from Hartford. The insurer, however, said Shuey wasn’t totally disabled when his coverage expired, pointing to the multiple injuries the pitcher received over the span of nearly a year.
The Dodgers later sued to force Hartford to cover its claim, and the lawsuit has been ordered into arbitration. The team is asking the bankruptcy court where it’s currently under Chapter 11 protection to let it proceed with the arbitration, in which it will ask for up to $ 3 million, $ 1.7 million of which is for contract damages.
Court papers show the team and Hartford have struck a deal as to what’s on the table in arbitration: whether Shuey was “totally disabled” while the policy was in effect and the amount of benefits, if any, the Dodgers are entitled to. Both sides agreed that no one will get attorneys’ fees covered through the arbitration.
The U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del., will weigh in on the matter at a Jan. 11 hearing.
Trustee asks Supreme Court to resolve payment-plan dispute
A U.S. trustee who blocked a bankrupt couple’s initial creditor repayment plan has joined in asking the Supreme Court to resolve a dispute among federal courts over whether bankruptcy laws require a minimum duration for plans under Chapter 13.
Thomson Reuters News & Insight: Bankruptcy Law – Insight
Farm sale tax dispute headed to Supreme Court
The U.S. Supreme Court is set to hear a dispute over whether a farmer who has filed a Chapter 12 petition may rely on a Bankruptcy Code provision making the capital gains tax from the bankruptcy sale of a farm dischargeable.
Thomson Reuters News & Insight: Bankruptcy Law – Insight
Chapter 13 debtors ask Supreme Court to resolve plan-length dispute
A bankrupt couple has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to resolve a dispute among federal courts over whether the Bankruptcy Code requires a minimum length of time for Chapter 13 plans.
Thomson Reuters News & Insight: Bankruptcy Law – Insight